Design

Brian Healy Architects

Children's Chapel and Community Center

The result of an open architectural competition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Korean Church of Boston, the Children's Chapel and Community Center not only provides space for the next generation of parishioners but also acts as an entry point for the rest of the community.

The result of an open architectural competition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Korean Church of Boston, the Children's Chapel and Community Center not only provides space for the next generation of parishioners but also acts as an entry point for the rest of the community.

The new chapel and community center are woven together with the existing 1950s-era complex that houses the Korean Church of Boston. The goal was to use modern materials but nod to the texture of the traditional church's façades. Cementitious panels cladding the new structures are set in a bricklike pattern.

The community center space, on the opposite side of the church from the chapel, opens onto a partially sunken courtyard, a result of excavating part of the earthen plinth created in the 1950s to resolve a steeply sloped site. The courtyard serves as a gathering place for the congregation but also lends a welcoming presence to that side of the church property.
1. community center, 2. courtyard, 3. classroom, 4. daycare, 5. roof terrace, 6. existing church, 7. children’s chapel

The community center space, on the opposite side of the church from the chapel, opens onto a partially sunken courtyard, a result of excavating part of the earthen plinth created in the 1950s to resolve a steeply sloped site. The courtyard serves as a gathering place for the congregation but also lends a welcoming presence to that side of the church property.

The result of an open architectural competition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Korean Church of Boston, the Children's Chapel and Community Center not only provides space for the next generation of parishioners but also acts as an entry point for the rest of the community. Instead of creating a building distinct from the 1950s-era brick church, Brian Healy Architects decided to weave old and new together, intersecting the long and narrow contemporary structure with the existing church. Juror Thomas Phifer found this strategy compelling: “I think the thing that you would think about doing in the beginning [of a project like this] is completely divorcing the addition—a modest addition away from a very traditional church. Here, they weave the buildings together and let the architectures come together. From a certain perspective, that was really the brave thing to do.” The new building features CMU and steel-frame construction, and it is clad in glass, zinc, and cementitious panels, creating a textured surface that relates to the surrounding brick but does not sacrifice the new structure's simple modernity.

The community center boasts a sunken courtyard, a clever solution to a potentially difficult site. When the original church was constructed, land was built up into a plinth as a solution to the 9-foot differential between the flanking streets. The plinth will be excavated to create a courtyard and throughway across the church campus, with the added benefit of creating a welcoming façade as opposed to a forbidding retaining wall.

The Children's Chapel is a study in happy contrasts. Countering the dark exterior, the inside of the terraced main space is clad in wood panels to create a warm environment. A series of narrow skylights and an angled ceiling plane create a dynamic pattern of light in the space, which changes with the time of day and the weather. Juror Karen Van Lengen noted, “[What I like about] this space is the way that the light comes in from above and the sides, and it becomes this very animated space for children.”

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